The use of plasma-generated systems, in particular of systems based on argon, hydrogen or methane, has been extensively described in the art. Such systems, when applied to hydrocarbons, are designed for the production of compounds like acetylene and/or carbon black since the energy released by activating the species forming the plasma is such that severe cracking will occur.
The use of hetero-atom(s) containing molecules to produce plasma-systems is much less documented, let alone possible applications thereof. From the rather scarce information available for the use of water as the source of the plasma-system it appears again that a severe cracking of the feedstocks described, such as coal, heavy oils or peat, will be achieved, i.e. in line with the results found for many years when subjecting hydrocarbons to conventional plasmas based on argon, hydrogen or methane.
It has now been found that plasma-generated systems derived from a source containing hydrogen atom(s) and at least one hetero-atom can be suitably applied in the synthesis of hetero-atom(s) containing hydrocarbons without substantially reducing the number of carbon atoms of the starting hydrocarbon(s).